From the age of twenty and up, everyone who goes out with the troops in Yisrael, you shall count them according to their troops. (Bemidbar 1:3)
It is the way of the world to count the troops before they go out to battle, in order to know how big and powerful the army is. This is to evaluate whether the army can stand up to the enemy, and to decide on the most appropriate strategy.
But the Jewish people at that time were not actually going out to war. The conquest of Eretz Yisrael was in the hands of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Also in Sefer Yehoshua we don’t find that they counted the people before conquering the Land.
So why were they counted here?
Because in truth, after the Jewish people left Mitzrayim and received the Torah, they were standing before a big and tough war. This was the war against the darkness and tumas hataavos that had conquered the world.
And so wrote Shlomo Hamelech in Shir Hashirim:
Here is the bed of Shlomo, there are sixty mighty men around it, among the mighty warriors of Yisrael. They all wield swords and are trained in battle. Each man has his sword on his thigh, due to the fear at night.
What was this “bed of Shlomo”?
Rashi ad loc explains that it was the holy Mishkan. Around it were the sixty ten-thousands of Israelites who went out of Egypt. They were the mighty warriors of the battle of Torah. The “fear at night,” against which they armed themselves, was lest they forget the Torah, causing harsh troubles to come upon them and the world at large. So explains Rashi.
Pearls of Wisdom from the Parshah
When the Jewish people readied themselves for this tough war, they counted the people, to know their strength, and to emphasize to every individual that he is a soldier who is counted as a member of the army, and he needs to join up with all the warriors and fight fiercely in the war of Torah.
This war began at the very beginnings of our nation, and it continues in full force today as well.
The enemies who stand against the kedushah of Hashem are the waves of chilul Shabbos, the assimilation into foreign cultures, and all the other travesties that have increased so greatly. There is a thick cloud of secularism and disdain for Torah enveloping us.
What are we to do? How should we make battle?
About this it says “They all wield swords and are trained in battle.” Which battle? The battle of Torah. Another shiur, another blat Gemara, another kapitel Tehillim, another mitzvah and another chesed.
The main thing is to know that we are in a time of war. And when a person is at war, there is no day and no night and no taking it easy. We need to just do the mitzvos with mesirus nefesh and every ounce of energy we have.
This is why the Jewish people were counted. It teaches us that success in the war of Torah requires mass enlistment of all our forces. It’s not enough for just a few elite units to go out to battle for Torah.
We need to make sure today, more than ever, not just that we learn Torah and keep mitzvos ourselves, but that others do so as well. We need to support Torah institutions and strengthen shiurim, encourage neighbors and relatives. Because the more soldiers show up for combat duty, the more impressive our successes will be, b’ezras Hashem.
